THE water crisis that has crippled the Mopani district in Limpopo for nearly two years will soon be a thing of the past.

THE water crisis that has crippled the Mopani district in Limpopo for nearly two years will soon be a thing of the past.

This follows on a cash injection of R50million by the Limpopo provincialtreasury.

The district has been without water for more than 16 months, compelling nearly 1,2million people to share water from fountains and wells with wild animals.

Government employees in hospitals and clinics, police stations, municipal workers and ordinary people were forced to use the bush as their toilet because there was not enough water to flush toilets.

But this is about to end after the provincial treasury provided R50million to address the water shortage.

The district will also get a share from the R90million from the national Treasury, that was allocated to the department of local government and housing.

The allocation wasspecifically to deal with water shortages in Limpopo municipalities.

Mopani, which was the hardest hit, is billed to receive the biggest share of the money.

Speaking to Sowetan yesterday MEC for the provincial treasury, Saad Cachalia, said the money allocated to Mopani would be used mainly to draw water from the Nandoni Dam outside Thohoyandou to villages hard hit by drought in Giyani, Modjadjiskloof, Tzaneen, Hoedspruit and Phalaborwa.

He said the water would also help projects that are under way in the Giyani area.

Technical services director in the Mopani district municipality Ngoako Ramathoka said the district had put aside R20million in its 2010-2011 financial year to draw clean water from the Nandoni Dam to the Siyandane Mapuve purification water scheme.

He said the district had also set aside R18,5million to draw raw water from the Nandoni Dam to the Nsami Dam in Giyani.